The Mission of The United Church of Christ

In East Ventura County

Mission Statement Adopted in 1995

The East Ventura County Regional United Church of Christ is a Christian community empowered by God to create an atmosphere for spiritual growth and learning in order to experience the reality of God.

We celebrate and embrace our diversities as we support one another in partnership with God in creation.

We are committed to use our resources to provide a dependable source of Christian love as we minister to the needs of the local and global communities.

For more on the mission of the United Church of Christ on Royal Avenue in Simi Valley, see our Core Values.

In the Nation and the World

Reprinted from Connections magazine, a publication of the Stewardship Council, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115, fall 1995

In the United Church of Christ, "partners in mission" is not just a polite phrase. It's the way this denomination gets as much mission work done, effectively and compassionately, as possible.

The Conferences, national agencies, and international partners of the United Church of Christ depend upon the prayers, personal involvement, and financial support of U.C.C. members and congregations. Without these, the full mission of the United Church of Christ would not exist.

For many of the partners who are doing and supporting the mission of the United Church of Christ in our nation and around the world, this mission today means:

* Helping all people on God's earth to have the basic physical necessities of life: adequate food and shelter, clean water, immunization, and medical care.
* Helping all people to have the basic spiritual necessities of life: knowledge of God, community with others, work to do, and hope for the future.
* Respecting the dignity and worth of each person, each neighborhood, each nation with whom we are partners.
* Providing education, from pre-school through professional school; teaching skills, building self-sufficiency and independence, developing everyone's God-given potential.
* Working to ensure that human power is used in ways God intends, to ensure justice and fairness among all people.

Here are stories of mission in the United Church of Christ being done by Conference and national "partners in mission." 

Hard Work and Careful Stewardship

In 1983, Huber Memorial United Church of Christ in Baltimore consisted of 25 faithful members, worshipping in the library of a large, crumbling church building. In 1993, under the leadership of the Rev. P.M. Smith, membership of this African American congregation had climbed to 360, and the congregation was involved in numerous community outreach ministries.

Through their hard work and careful stewardship, and with assistance from the United Church of Christ, the congregation of Huber Memorial U.C.C. has been able to purchase a new building. It will not only house the ever-growing congregation, but will allow ministries to reach further into the community, with a pre-school/day care center, a Christian grade school, and a Community Outreach Center.

Bodies not Battlefields

"For about a year and a half I have been wearing on my coat a red badge emblazoned with barbed wire and the words 'Women's Bodies are NOT battlefields.' The badge never fails to prompt curious questions and gives me an opportunity to do some consciousness-raising. Advocacy campaigns come and go, but I have felt compelled to continue wearing that badge. For I believe women's bodies continue to be battlefields," says a woman from St. John's U.C.C. in Pennsylvania.

The United Church of Christ distributed the badges as a protest against the atrocities committed against women in Bosnia, and the proceeds went to a fund for victims of sexual harassment and abuse in the church.

Seeking Peace

"We visited My Lai, where the massacre by our troops of over 500 Vietnamese is memorialized. We stood near one of the ditches where over 100 older men, women, and children were slaughtered and we shared in a brief service of prayer. A young child appeared at the other side of the ditch with a curious look on his face. After we finished, a member of our delegation, a retired teacher, held up a balloon and this smiling child and strange American met in the middle of that ditch. . .two generations seeking peace and reconciliation."

This visit to Vietnam by leaders of the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ marked the first step for us in new relations with the Vietnamese people.

Signs of Hope

An issue of Civil Rights Journal asked "Can we as human beings live together in justice and peace?" Responding to escalating levels of violence in our country, the Journal appealed to readers to share signs of hope in their communities.

It was as if people had been waiting for an opportunity to share some "good news." One reader wrote, "A colleague gave me a copy of your article 'Victory Over Violence' and I was touched because I also see more focus on things that are having a positive effect in communities."

Each week for the past 25 years, the United Church of Christ's Civil Rights Journal has focused on a racial justice issue confronting our nation. It is printed in 250 newspapers and received by over 1,000 people across this country and has become a well-known voice for justice.

Our Extra Ingredients

"There are no instant cures for the homeless," reads a small brochure describing the Women's Bean Project in Denver, Colorado. "Ours takes a good two and a half hours."

"No instant mix or canned concentrate can match the way our ten bean soup, black bean soup and old fashioned chili taste. And certainly none can match our extra ingredients--teaching homeless women job skills, self-sufficiency, and giving them a new sense of worth and hope. These ingredients have helped over half the women of this non-profit organization go on to permanent employment and housing."

Jossy Eyre, a United Church of Christ volunteer, works with the Women's Bean Project.

"I've been working with women who are ready to move on from here," said Jossy. "We help them find contacts, seek applications, and develop resumes."

A More Noble Way of Living

In the former East Germany, a generation taught to believe that church is for the "simple-minded" now brings questions to Lisa and Steve Smith, United Church of Christ Global Mission Interns serving with a church on the eastern side of Berlin.

"These kids want to know what they can get out of a relationship with God or the church. I speak of loving and being loved, being forgiven, praying, attending worship or reading the Bible and my perceptions and emotions being transformed; focusing on a more noble way of living than what is shown in society. I asked them if there were any other organization in society that had those goals. No one could think of one."

The Steepest Country in the World

Keith and June Fleshman, U.C.C. missionaries who have recently completed eight years of service with the United Mission to Nepal, write of their experience:

"Tansen hospital has grown from a few rooms in an old house to 130 beds and 300 employees. . . serving about 600 patients a day with 3,000 inpatient and 3,000 outpatient surgeries a year.

"This is the steepest country in the world. People fall from the paths and the terraces, from buses, and down cliffs. Rocks fall on them from heights. Fracture care is one of our most active areas of work--400 elbows a year. Burns, too! Most homes cook with wood fires in open pits. We always have several burn patients being prepared for grafting, being grafted . . . or simply dying because we don't have the sophistication to save them.

The church in Nepal, illegal until democratization four years ago, "has blossomed and is growing faster than one can count. . . Worship services are at least two hours long: fifty percent singing and filled with praise and prayer."

The Fleshmans have a prayer of their own, about Nepal:

"Dear God, creator of everything, we thank you that you never slumber nor sleep. Your Spirit is always working even when our attention is elsewhere. Thank you for building a church of tens of thousands of believers around us while we were looking at our hands and feet. Suddenly we are surrounded by your children when we thought we were alone. How you must love Nepal!"

Taking Multi-Culturalism Seriously

On any given Sunday, services in United Church of Christ congregations in the Illinois Conference are conducted in at least ten different languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and several Filipino dialects.

"We are taking seriously what it means to be a multi-cultural, multi-racial church," said the Reverend Dan VanderPloeg, who served as interim Conference Minister. It's a challenge for many churches: learning how to share the gifts of differing congregations within the framework of a united church. To help, Chicago's Community Renewal Society works with churches to identify and overcome the barriers of racism.

The Illinois Conference also brings members of small urban churches together with members of small rural churches. Although they live in very different settings, these church members really connect with each other as they face very similar concerns.

WHERE CAN I FIND MISSION STORIES?

Among the many mailings every U.C.C. church receives automatically from the national and Conference offices, you can find stories that tell about the full mission of the United Church of Christ. Some sources of stories must be ordered. Here are some tips on where to look:

In Mission: A Calendar of Prayer for the United Church of Christ
Published every year in the spring by the United Church Boards for World and Homeland Ministries, two copies of this invaluable resource are sent to every U.C.C. church. The Calendar of Prayer has two brief stories of mission in the U.S. or around the world for every day of the year, with longer mission stories for each Sunday, plus prayers. Its layout makes it easy to photocopy a week's worth of mission stories and prayers on one page to use as an insert in the church bulletin. To order (they are free in limited quantity), call toll-free 1-800-325-7061.

United Church News
The newspaper of the United Church of Christ. Published monthly, it is a good source of very current stories about mission in the U.C.C. For subscription and price information, call (216) 736-2222.

Keeping You Posted
A one-page monthly collection of very brief, ready-to-use stories of "good news" from all over the U.C.C., designed for use by church editors. Produced by the national Office of Communication and available from your Conference office.

Profiles of Partners
A set of twelve bulletin inserts that profile missionaries or overseas partners of the United Church of Christ. Free. To order, call (216) 736-3208.

U.C.C. Sunday Bulletin Service
Bulletin covers for every Sunday of the year with art or photos (your choice) on front, and mission stories (along with worship and other material) on many of the back covers. For price information and to order, call toll free 1-800-325-7061.

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